Posts Tagged ‘Beezy Bailey’

My last Venice blog – this Biennale, anyway – is about the various exhibits scattered around the town. In the case of Scully and the Bailey-Eno collaboration (see below), the magnificent venue is at least half the attraction.

Land Sea, Sean Scully

Sean Scully

I’d considered Scully one of those one-trick artists whose work repeated itself, more or less; stripes and intersections in greys, browns, blacks and whites, vaguely reminiscent of the side of a cattle truck – and so, with sinister and depressing associations. This show, of around thirty works, revealed to me a very different artist; still stripes, but a variety of luscious colours and textures. You can clearly see the thickness of the paint, slippery and glossy, and the sweep and chop of the brush marks. Many are huge and some of the best are done on aluminium. When he works in a variety of blues (the “Sea” bit, I guess), he gets a depth and vibrancy of tone I’ve not seen matched. The venue is one of those old, deserted mansions with ochre and sienna walls, roughly textured. The walls made me think, totally inappropriately, of the Dirty Protest in the HBlocks…

The Sound of Creation – Sound Paintings, Beezy Bailey and Brian Eno

Beezy Bailey

This show is in the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello, a working music academy in a beautiful seven or eight storey building with an enclosed courtyard. As you climb the stairs, classical singing and orchestral music from the rehearsal rooms accompany you.

The paintings, vigorous, colourful, gloss on board, abstract and nearly abstract, are on the landings as you go up; some have earphones with them, through which you can hear Eno’s electronic music. I found it pleasing, especially the one with the jaunty bass line and the unmistakeable whirr of an electric toothbrush, but not obviously connecting with, or enhancing the paintings.

Great view over the rooftops of Venice from the window next to the painting above; the slightly variegated roof tiles look like a Paul Klee painting. As we descended, we couldn’t resist peering through a keyhole at a rehearsal in progress and only narrowly saved ourselves from falling forwards through the door.

Path and Adventure, Mio Pang Fei

Mio Pang Fei

Chinese artist, now based in Macao, an astonishing body of work recapping Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Modernism and Abstract Expressionism, produced under one of the most hostile regimes in history. A dim, crepuscular film playing, showing a series of horrible images from the Cultural Revolution; victims paraded with placards, heads bowed. as they are punched, manhandled, screamed at by manic Red Guards. Many of those shown were surely shot soon after. A line of nuns in white habits being given similar treatment. Mio, on video, is low key and impressive but with no optimistic message for us – I’m glad to say; his work provides that. Comparable with the ground floor of Russian pavilion.

…the Rest is Smoke, Helen Sear

More great art from Wales – Beddwyr Williams’ “Starry Messenger” at same venue two years ago. The still below is taken from a looping sequence, in which a young woman in a red dress circles a beech tree, or maybe a series of beech trees, over and over again, caressing the trunk with one hand. The tree trunks and leaves shine through her body; the reds and golds of the leaves echo her dress. You never see more than the lower half of her face. I found it erotic, hypnotic and ghostly. There are other tree- and woodland- related images in the show, but this is the one that stayed with me.

Helen Sear

An old one of mine, but I’m anxious to publish. Next week – Manchester galleries.